Ligia Macovei in Arghezi's poetry

Presentation of the catalog-album, made in partnership with the Bucharest City Museum
The anniversary of 10 years of activity of the Rotenberg-Uzunov Gallery

Three special events will take place on Thursday, November 17, 2022, at the Rotenberg-Uzunov Gallery, at 6 p.m. It is the opening of the exhibition that includes works made by Ligia Macovei to illustrate the Arghesian creation, the presentation of a completely new art album, and the anniversary of 10 years of activity of the Rotenberg-Uzunov Gallery.

In addition to the opening of the exhibition, we are happy to announce that, through an excellent collaboration between the Bucharest City Museum and the Rotenberg-Uzunov Gallery, an album was created that brings together two superb graphic art collections, one belonging to the Bucharest City Museum, and the other being owned by Mr. Eduard Uzunov. All the works that are published in the album were made by Ligia Macovei to illustrate the work of Tudor Arghezi and represent her experiments, the versions created in ink, watercolor and monotype, with subsequent interventions.

Ligia Macovei (1916-1998) exhibited at numerous national salons, but also at the Venice Biennale in 1956, for example. He opened, throughout his career, solo exhibitions in Rome, at Galleria Penelope (1962), in Vienna, at Künstlerhaus (1965) and in Tunis, at Galeria I Information (1975). He also participated in numerous group exhibitions organized abroad. Ligia Macovei was a lecturer at the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest and, in 1958, the artist fulfilled the position of permanent delegate of the People's Republic of Romania to UNESCO (Paris), being also appointed commissioner of the Romanian pavilion at the XXIX the Venice Biennale. In 1964, Ligia Macovei received a special mention at the Leipzig book fair for the illustrated volume: Poems by Mihai Eminescu. He also made illustrations for the poetry of Tudor Arghezi, another titan of Romanian literature.

Specialist criticism agrees that in the art of book illustration, Ligia Macovei oscillated between a philosophical lyricism in the case of illustrating Mihai Eminescu's poems and an anguished and impetuous graphicism, manifested in the illustration of Tudor Arghezi's poems. Being a promoter of symbolism, Arghezi was one of the most original and modern Romanian poets. Especially, through the two volumes of reference in his creation: "Appropriate words" (1927) and "Flori de mucegai" (1931), the great poet traced a new stage of evolution for Romanian interwar lyric. Arghezi promoted a poem charged with the chill of the search for divinity but also with the confusion of modern man's existence, in which he oscillates tragically between revolt and faith, between mysticism and a cruel realism.

The exhibition presents, for the first time, the preparatory drawings for the printing of the illustrated volume of poems by Tudor Arghezi (published in 1970) and which are in the original folder that Mr. Uzunov owns. It is a special moment, dedicated to the creation of Ligia Macova, one of the most valuable graphic artists in Romania. A moment that also marks a beautiful anniversary of the gallery where the artist's works are exhibited.

Dr. Elena Olariu